A Silent Turf War
The arrest of a conman Sanjay Rai Sherpuria last week by the UP's Special Task Force (STF) having connections with the high & mighty in Delhi, has shocked the powers that be. If he succeeded in fooling the rich by promising to get their pending cases with central investigative agencies settled, he also obliged several politicians by giving them huge sums as “unsecured loans” before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. These unsecured loans have not been paid back until now, as reports suggest. While the name of a Lieutenant Governor has already surfaced, it is whispered in the corridors of power here that a couple of central ministers were also obliged by Sherpuria. His photographs with many ministers, bureaucracy are also doing the rounds. What has baffled the most is that Sanjay Rai Sherpuria was arrested by the NOIDA unit of the STF after it was tipped off by a Central investigation agency about his activities. Earlier, it was claimed that the STF took suo-moto the action against him. Why a central agency tipped off the STF rather than acting on its own, is extremely baffling. It is said that Sanjay Rai's case is an indication of a silent turf war going on between Delhi and Lucknow. UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has been quite uneasy with some leaders in Delhi and not being given a free hand in many key areas.
However, Yogi is unruffled as he has already become an icon for the Hindutva forces. There are reports that Sanjay Rai's case may soon be transferred to the CBI as the conman has been operating in many states. Sanjay Rai is not the first conman to be arrested. Prior to him, Kiran Patel, another conman, was arrested by the J&K Police in March for claiming to be a top official in the PMO. He was handed over to the Gujarat Police for further probe.
Rising graph of Vice President Dhankhar
The graph of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has been rising by the day. A clue emerged when the government re-constituted the Governing Council of the Sansad TV by appointing Jagdeep Dhankhar as its Chairman while Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla will be its Co-Chairman. Sansad TV came into being when the government decided to merge the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha television channels in March 2021. The Sansad TV was finally launched on September 15, 2021 by the Prime Minister. The process of merger is continuing with similar content being telecast by both the channels when the Parliament is not in session. Before the merger of the two channels, the Lok Sabha TV was governed by the Lok Sabha secretariat and Rajya Sabha channel was under the Rajya Sabha secretariat. But this is no longer the case. Now Dhankhar will oversee the operations of both the channels.
The Governing Council appointed Ranjit Punhani (IAS: 1991: BH) as CEO Sansad TV with immediate effect replacing Lok Sabha Secretary General U K Singh as Sansad TV CEO. U K Singh was holding the additional charge. The Secretary Generals of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha will be members of the governing Council while CEO Sansad TV will be the Member-Secretary. Insiders in the government say that Dhankhar has developed tremendous chemistry with the PM which his predecessor M Venkaiah Naidu could not develop. Dhankar being a lawyer par excellence is also using his skills in taking hard decisions on many issues which his predecessors never did. Dhankhar took an unprecedented step by sending the case of a Rajya Sabha MP to the privilege committee for writing an article which was divisive in nature.
Modi’s Sermons to Ministers
An interesting experiment is currently underway in the Modi government. According to insiders, all Union Ministers have been asked to acquaint themselves with the functioning, landmark projects and achievements of a ministry other than his/her own. It is believed that this proposal has come from the Prime Minister's Office and aimed to ensure that the knowledge base of ministers should not necessarily be limited to a particular field. Instead, they should have an overview of the functioning of the government and also their success stories. It is argued that this will help the ministers in responding to queries from the media and on other occasions. The government obviously does not want its ministers faltering when information is sought on issues outside their respective areas of expertise. Secondly, Modi Ministers are finding it extremely difficult to spare time for their own family members. At least a Cabinet minister narrated a tale in an interview saying his daughter is very upset that he is unable to spare time for them even on a Sunday. Another Cabinet minister whispered, "we have become like a war machine or a "robot." Another minister rues that he has to miss his morning workouts at least four days a week due to one reason or the other while another grumbled that he could hardly find time to have evening dinner with the family. "We are at war all the time and cannot leave the field mid-way," he said. There are new guidelines for them such as; they should sound the leadership before going to any public function etc. If they are planning to visit their home state for a public function, they must inform the state unit president. Even for appearing in a TV interview on party affairs, they have to follow a drill as the entire system is centralized.
